Three Tips for Deciding What Your Next Business Will Be

There are many factors to consider when planning a new business venture. There are many kinds of businesses after all and just deciding without doing proper research is a waste of money. There are businesses that make products or provide services to consumers. There are also businesses that make supplies and materials or provide services to other businesses, such as B2B Telemarketing and other business-to-business services. It seems quite complicated, right? But complicated though it might seem, it’s actually pretty simple: know who your intended customers are.

So how do you decide who your customers are? Here are a few tips on how you can identify your intended customers so you can plan the path your business will take:

Based on your skills and what you’re good at, who do you think are the people who would be looking for them? Say you’re great at baking, who do you think your customers are? Baking bread and bread only, and you’ll only get customers who are looking for bread. Bake only pastries, and you’ll only get customers who are looking for pastries. Bake only cakes and you get customers who are looking for cakes. Bake any combination of the three and you’ll get a combination of their respective customers. You can see how one skill can diverge into seven different businesses, each with varying ranges of customers. Another example: say you’re a mechanic. What’s your specialty? Cars, motorbikes, or trucks, or any combination of the three? Say you’re a software developer, what’s your expertise? Databases, web development, desktop application, or video games? The list goes on. Now, identify who your customers are.

Once you’ve identified who your customers are, decide if you’ll want to expand your range of customers eventually, or stick with your first customers forever. Obviously, these are options you can decide on at any time, but it will help to decide in the beginning. Say, you run a label manufacturing business. Would you want to expand your business to include paper bag manufacturing? How about plastic cups, since you also process plastic in making labels. If you set the idea that you’ll expand your business eventually, you’ll have this “secondary marker” you’ll be working towards to. It could inspire you to work harder towards your goal.

Once you’ve set the list of people who you want to be your customers, list down people who are now your customers. Say you’re a baker and you only bake bread. Avoid baking pastries until you’re ready to expand. When you are ready, make a wide range of pastries, not just a specific one. If you can only make one type of pastry, you’re not ready, so avoid making any for pastry customers. They are not your customers yet.

Finally, once you have identified who your customers are, you can plan the path your business will take more clearly. There’s less “noise” when deciding what your next product or service will be. That will give your business a clearer “identity” and can aid you in deciding what your business is.